George Washington Carver/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Moby lubricates his body with peanut oil from an oil can. There is a barrel of peanut oil in his living room. Tim walks over to him. TIM: Hey, where'd you get that? MOBY: Beep. TIM: You made it yourself? No way. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, I heard about this guy who invented a million things with peanuts. Can you tell me about him? Curious, Eddie. George Washington Carver did some pretty amazing things with peanuts. During his career, he used them to create over 300 distinct products. An animation shows George Washington Carver juggling peanuts in his lab. The peanuts change to mayonnaise, soap, peanut butter; and other products. TIM: But Carver's rise to fame as the "Peanut Man" is only a small part of his story. MOBY: Beep. TIM: He was an agricultural scientist, studying how soil chemistry affects crop yields. But he didn't just stay in the lab. An animation shows Carver in his lab writing observations of a soil experiment. TIM: He persuaded farmers around the country to adopt more scientific practices. And that makes him one of the most influential scientists of his day. An animation shows Carver on a farm kneeling by a plant while farmers observe and listen to him. TIM: His achievements are all the more impressive given the struggles he faced as an African American. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Carver was born into slavery in Missouri during the Civil War. A U.S. map shows the state of Missouri. A star indicates where Carver was born, and another image shows a pair of shackles. TIM: His father died before he was born. Shortly after that, slave traders kidnapped his mother from the plantation. An animation shows George Washington Carver's parents with a baby George. Both parents disappear, leaving the baby alone in a basket. TIM: So the owners, Moses and Susan Carver; raised George themselves. The animation shows baby George with the plantation owners. Susan Carver picks up and holds the baby. MOBY: Beep. TIM: As a child, Carver struggled with illness. Stuck indoors, he developed a close connection to Susan Carver. An animation shows Susan Carver bringing a plant to George, who is sick in bed. It cheers him up. TIM: She taught him about herbal medicines, and young George quickly became fascinated with plants. An animation shows a plant in shining light. MOBY: Beep. TIM: His obsession grew into expertise. Neighbors began calling him the "plant doctor". They came to him for advice on caring for the health of their gardens. An animation shows George in a greenhouse. A neighbor brings him a dying plant to look at. TIM: Farmers were in awe of Carver's intellect and knowledge. An image shows a line of farmers bringing wilting or dying plants to George. TIM: But despite his brilliance, he was barred from attending the local school. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Slavery had ended with the Civil War. A timeline shows the years of slavery before the 1860s, leading up to Reconstruction in the 1860s and 1870s. Jim Crow follows Reconstruction until the Civil Rights Movement of the mid – 1950s through the 1960s, and the Post-Civil Rights period follows that. TIM: But life in the post-war South was defined by segregation, the forced separation of races. African Americans were often mistreated and not given the same opportunities as white people. The Jim Crow era on the timeline transitions to an image of a train station with "White" and "Colored" waiting areas. A white passenger sits on a bench in the "White" section, while s African American passengers stand in the "Colored" section. MOBY: Beep. A train drives through the station where the people wait. TIM: In his teens, George left home in search of a formal education. He landed at Iowa State Agricultural College, where he was the first African-American student. He majored in botany. An animation shows George in class at the college. All of his classmates are white. MOBY: Beep. The animation shows the classroom professor uncovering a small orange robot that looks like Moby. TIM: No, it's the study of plants. The robot changes into a plant. TIM: He earned his master's degree at Iowa and grew into a respected academic. That caught the attention of Booker T. Washington. An animation shows Booker T. Washington reading Plant Quarterly magazine. Carver is on its cover. TIM: Washington was the leader of the Tuskegee Institute, one of America's first black colleges. An image shows the Tuskegee Institute. TIM: He invited Carver to head the agricultural department at Tuskegee. Side by side animations show Washington writing the invitation and Carver reading it in his lab. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Even though the position paid far less, Carver took the job. The animation shows Carver reading the invitation and running off to do the job. TIM: He was excited to mentor African-American students. An image shows Carver teaching African-American students in a classroom. Scientific equipment is on the table. TIM: Carver also hoped his work could help farmers across the rural South. MOBY: Beep. TIM: At the time, cotton was the main crop in the southern United States. An image shows a farmer carrying a basket of cotton in a cotton field. TIM: It requires huge amounts of nitrogen to grow properly. An animation shows the roots of a cotton plant absorbing nitrogen. TIM: Growing cotton year after year was draining the soil of the nutrient. Eventually, the fields couldn't grow much of anything. An animation shows a cotton field producing less and less cotton and drying up. MOBY: Beep. TIM: In response, Carver promoted the idea of crop rotation. He urged farmers to alternate their crops each growing season. Swapping in something like sweet potatoes kept the soil healthy. It prevented nitrogen depletion and led to a more diverse yield. An animation shows different crops planted on a farm each time a calendar changes year. Cotton alternates with sweet potatoes and soybeans. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Crop rotation had been around for centuries, but Carver helped refine it to a, well, a science. He conducted a series of experiments to figure out which plants had the strongest nitrogen-fixing properties. That is, which ones restored the most nitrogen to the soil. Two crops stood out: soybeans and peanuts. An animation shows Carver leading a note-taking team at a farm. He pulls up a peanut plant from the ground. MOBY: Beep. TIM: To help share his discoveries, Carver came up with the Jesup Wagon. It was an agricultural classroom on wheels. Carver taught farmers throughout the South about soil nutrition. An animation shows Carver on the Jesup Wagon telling farmers about plants. TIM: By swapping in soybeans, peanuts, and sweet potatoes, they were able to keep growing cotton. An image shows the crops Tim lists. TIM: There was just one little problem. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Farmers weren't sure what to do with all those peanuts. Since peanuts weren't very widely used, farmers couldn’t make much money from them. An animation shows a farmer holding up a peanut, puzzling over it. MOBY: Beep. TIM: To boost demand, Carver developed hundreds of peanut-based products. An animation shows Carver developing peanut-based products in his lab. TIM: Items like soap, paper, shaving cream, lotion, flour, and insulation. In a few years, the peanut market was booming. An image shows these items. A graph line with an upward arrow shows the market trend for peanuts. TIM: Carver didn't stop there. He also came up with new uses for sweet potatoes, like shoe polish and rope. Images show a sweet potato, shoe polish and shoe brush, and rope. TIM: Carver's inventiveness earned the admiration of world leaders and his fellow scientists. An animation shows Carver shaking hands with President Theodore Roosevelt. Another image shows a scientist holding up a sweet potato. TIM: He helped auto manufacturer Henry Ford create— MOBY: Beep. Moby holds up a toy peanut car. TIM: Uh, no. TIM: They collaborated to create a peanut-based replacement for rubber. An animation shows Carver and Ford standing over wheels placed on a rolling conveyer belt. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, Carver's resourcefulness was an inspiration to millions of people. Moby pours peanut oil into a glass bottle. TIM: He improved the lives of farmers and boosted the Southern economy. Some even say he saved it. Moby scribbles "Nitro-fix!" on the bottle and walks it over to Tim. MOBY: Beep. TIM: That's not a sports drink. You just poured peanut oil in a bottle. Moby puts the bottle up to Tim's mouth. Tim backs away. TIM: Don't be a goober. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts